Graduate Pittsburgh Initiative Summit
Taking Action to Address the Local High School Dropout Crisis The Graduate Pittsburgh Initiative is hosting their annual Fall Summit. The purpose of the summit is to bring together educators, local leaders, youth-serving organizations as well as parents and young people to address issues related to the dropout crisis in Pittsburgh. In 2011, the summit had national experts including; * Yolie Flores, CEO of Communities for Teaching Excellence in Los Angeles, CA * Jabali Sawicki, founding Principal, Excellence Charter School for Boys, Brooklyn, NY. Interview Nicole Molinaro Karaczun, Executive Director of Communities in Schools recently spoke with UrbanMediaToday’s , Allegra Johnson about the importance of keeping kids in school and why the Graduate Pittsburgh Initiative is so important to the community. Allegra Johnson: Can you tell me a little bit about the Graduate Pittsburgh Initiative? Nicole Molinaro Karaczun: Graduate Pittsburgh is an initiative that was started about 4 years ago out of a dropout prevention summit. During that summit, we brought together people from youth serving organizations, local government, business, schools and students themselves to talk about how we can put an end to the dropout epidemic. The summit has evolved since then, so not only do we do an annual summit but we have year-round activities that focus on providing immediate intervention to students and working with policy issues. AJ: Why is it so important to keep kids in school when we talk about the dropout rate? And how is Pittsburgh doing, as far as the number of high school dropouts each year? NMK: Those are two very good questions, it’s so important to keep kids in school because, there are very few opportunities for youth and young adults to find jobs without a high school education. This is not the industrial society we lived in 60 years ago where, if you didn’t have a high school education it was ok, you could still get a good paying job in a factory. Times have changed and a high school education is the absolute minimum that’s needed these days to secure and maintain a job that brings in a living wage. The national dropout rate is 35- to 50% nationwide so we are losing at least one third of all our children before they leave high school and up to 50% when we talk about African American males; Pittsburgh is no different from that. Certainly, Pittsburgh Public Schools have been working to change that and keep more children in school. But it really does echo the problem in the nation. AJ: Why do you think there is a racial disparity when it comes to the dropout rate? NMK: There are a lot of real life challenges out there for African American youth. I should not just say African American youth but really low –income youth is faced with these challenges and that disproportionately impacts African American males. There is also a school of thought that there are academic disparities within the school system itself. Based upon race, kids are treated differently ; everything from standardized testing to discipline and punishment. AJ: I think you hit the nail on the head when you talked about the real economic disparities that many students face, what about disparities within school districts? NMK: There are big differences within low-income school districts verses those in high-income neighborhoods. Lower-income districts have less resources they have less ability to have additional programming for students. And then within school districts that have wide varieties of kids from different social-economic backgrounds there’s also differences in achievement. It’s a very complex situation that we as a society are trying to get a handle on. And while we are doing that, we are still unfortunately loosing children. AJ: Do you think that the Pittsburgh Promise is helping to keep kids in school? NMK: I believe that it has helped to get kids on the right track. Anytime you enter a Pittsburgh Public School you see the “Dream Big, Work Hard” logo and information about the promise. And I think that the Pittsburgh Promise is a motivating factor to keep kids in school. It can also help kids stay on track. AJ: What are some guidelines that you would give parents to help motive their kids to stay in school? NMK: I think the constant nurturing that education is important is what is critical to kids. From a very young age, it’s important o help kids understand the value of education. Once you are a little bit behind, it gets harder and harder to keep up with your classmates. If you are behind by the third grade, after that it’s very difficult and you fall behind at a greater pace. AJ: How do you keep kids focused when there are so many outside factors to distract kids these days? NMK: In this day and age, there are so many competing factors for kids. There’s the idea of celebrity, sports and video games. There is so much more that kids are dealing with now and so many real world problems that they are dealing with in their home and community and education sometimes takes a back seat. It’s really important that we as parents, as educators or community members for us to help keep kids on track. But it’s our jobs as adults to reach out and help these kids. Event Details * Graduate Pittsburgh Initiative Summit Date: Thursday, November 10, 2011 Time: 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. Where: Hosanna House, 807 Wallace Avenue in Wilkinsburg (free parking available in lot on Wallace Avenue) Category:Summit Category:Education Category:Schools